Over several meetings at the Al-Matar complex near Kandahar, bin Laden told KSM al-Qaeda would support the "planes operation" but scrapped KSM's proposal to make a statement to the news media after landing one of the hijacked planes.

They developed a list of targets: bin Laden wanted to hit the White House, Pentagon and U.S. Capitol. KSM wanted to hit the World Trade Center and U.S. Capitol.